TCGreek said:
1. What then is your concept of the Trinity?
Here's my thought --- In eternity past, God was One being, Three in One, like we are. That, to me, is when He was alone. I AM was all there was. All of creation was conceived and God "divided" Himself into 3 Persons for the very purpose of creating, in 3 phases, a people to fellowship with Him eternally.
2. I'm only quoting the Scripture, Skypair. Tell me then, what those Scriptures mean? It seems like we want a God that we can domesticate.
It's probably the picture you paint as "God's pleasure" that I react to. Let's agree that He does all things according to His will but allows many things to happen that are not His will or pleasure, right?
But is He bound by time like us? Not at all!
To the extent that He created time for His purposes, He has bound Himself (and especially when He "visited" us) to time. And in fact, there are certain prophecies that He promised to fulfill in a time certain -- the captivity in Egypt, in Babylon, the coming of the King Jesus in 483 years, etc. Keeping promises is binding, no?
And so the issue of "foreknowledge" becomes even more defined. God did "think this all through" beforehand. He did foreordain His "dealings" with them according to men's decisions and actions.
4. We must both admit, that if we maintain the absolute God of the Scriptures, who created man with free moral agency, then there's a dimension to this creation that we will never understand.
I think the "I am" is pretty simple. It is realization of self. It's the thing that distinguishes us, so my science teachers said, from the beasts. We have a soul or conscience that is aware of self as distinct from God. It causes "selfishness."
5. I've heard theologians say that Adam was put on probation for a period, but he sinned, and hence the mess we are all in. Quite frankly, I do not understand it all.
There was a period when Adam was NOT under a microscope -- "challenged." It was before Eve came along! I believe that it was Eve that gave Adam an "alternative" to God. And God had commanded, "for her, man shall leave his Father and mother and cleave unto his wife."
Eve, like us, was tempted and sinned. As husband, what does Adam (or God or Christ) do? Purposely "leave and cleave" in accordance with with God's command. Isn't that an image of God and Christ? Take sin on our behalf so that He might rescue us? Sure, God could destroy us just as Adam could have rejected the fruit and sent Eve into condemnation alone.
Instead, Adam was a HUGE picture of Jesus, wasn't he? He was not deceived but took the fruit anyway since Eve "was a goner." He committed himself to Eve and God committed Himself to Israel (and Christ to the church). WHY? "It is not good that man [nor God] should be alone."
6. A sequence of events for the benefit of man, for only in that way can a transcendent God make sense to finite man.
I think you are probably right there. I wish you would understand this whole thing on the level of the "great mystery." Do you remember when you were single? Did you feel "complete?"
And you know, one of the things they say a man needs is adoration. Without that, God is like "one hand clapping," right?
7. You and I will continue to differ at this point. I see no evidence of what you are proposing in Scripture, whether OT or NT.
Sorry for you. God deals with men on 3 levels and that is why there are 3 "phases" to salvation -- justification (soul), sanctification (spirit), glorification (body). God's "dealings" are structured that way. Even Israel is described by 3 plants -- olive tree, fig tree, grapevine. Do you comprehend the differences?
8. At one level, we share in marriage because of the greater marriage to come. That is why in the resurrection, we are not going to be involved in the marital. But for now, we benefit from marriage, but its greater signifance points to another.
Well, as you can see from the previous -- the marriage symbology is HUGE! If you can't see it, you miss what God is doing all this for.
You've missed the "courtship," the "proposal," the "espousal" (remember Mary who was espoused before her marriage?). TC, when do you see the marriage taking place? and where?
skypair